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Feb 17, 2009

Tuesday February 17, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: Weather Unit(s)

17A: Weather unit: SNOWFLAKE

59A: Weather units: RAINDROPS

10D: Weather unit: ICE CRYSTAL

29D: Weather units: HAILSTONES

I doubt the above theme clues are the constructor's originals. Remember what our editor did with John Underwood's Jan 12, 2009 puzzle? He changed all of Underwood's colorful and evocative clues into boring "Someone's opera".

I like the clue for LIED (21D: Manufactured facts). Quite tricky, with the plural "facts", the answer could also be LIES. Would have preferred "More factual" for TRUER (12D: Less of a lie?) due to the duplication of "lie".

As ART is the answer for 66A: Fleming or Garfunkel, it shouldn't appear as clue for INTAGLIO (6D: Glyptic art).

Across:

1A: African river: CONGO. The second longest river in Africa after Nile.

14A: Lend beauty to: ADORN. And the measurement for beauty is millihelen, after Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ship. How many millihelens here?

15A: Lon __ of Cambodia: NOL. I thought U Thant was from Cambodia also. Turns out he was a Burmese. U simply means "sir".

22A: Pile of rocks: SCREE. I forgot. This word needs an additional letter N or D at the tail to make sense to me.

67A: Ancient region of Asia Minor: IONIA. Still remember last week's answer AEOLIS? I wanted IONIA then. How long did the Greek colonize Turkey?

70A: Subject to random chance: FLUKY. New adjective to me.

Down:

9D: Wynton or Branford: MARSALIS. No idea. I am very ignorant on jazz musicians. Wynton MARSALIS is a trumpeter. Brandford MARSALIS is a saxophone player.11D: One of Bolivia's capitals: SUCRE. I wonder why it's named SUCRE, so sweet. Barry Silk probably would have gone LA PAZ, given his affinity with scrabbly letters.

26D: First name in cartoon skunks: PEPE. I linked this clip last Sunday. "Bon what?" I could not understand his first sentence.

36D: "Othello" conniver: IAGO. I used to confuse him with Prince IGOR.

37D: New Zealand island territory: NIUE. Unknown to me. See this map, between Tonga and Cook Islands. It's discovered by Captain Cook in 1774. This might be a tough fill if you don't know the intersecting singer Lisa LOEB.

53D: Craft starter?: HOVER. Also called ACV (Air-Cushion Vehicle). I have never heard of it before.

57D: Enlighten: EDIFY. Same root with edifice?

63D: Explorer Zebulon: PIKE. Did not know this guy or his exploration. Wikipedia says PIKES Peak in CO is named after him.

61 comments:

Good morning, C.C. and gang - one of the faster puzzles for me, under 5 minutes. The more we see the same tired 'crossword words', the simpler these things become.

Not much to comment on; I dislike seeing 'deepness' instead of depth, and for some reason, 'roarers' bothers me as the clue for "Lions, at times". I just wish we'd get another Silk puzzle sometime; it'd certainly be refreshing.

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them." -- Boris Pasternak

Dennis,This Dr. Zhivago style quote is very similar to a TR quote you brought up a few months ago, right? I just published Williams' email address with the Verna Suit interview. Hopefully he will heed to what solvers want and publish those 20+ Silk puzzles. Are you OK with yesterday's "Alternative beau" for RIVAL (55D)?

Lemonade,Very seldom does a puzzle go published without any grid/clue change. Sometimes the editor can change as much as 50% clues. I wonder if I was the only one who was not aware of the boxing term TANKING. What kind of law do you practice? Did you collect baseball cards when you were young?

Hayrake,You've had an interesting life. You should comment here often.

Wolfmom & Argyle,I thought of a better way to remember Catherine PARR. I will connect her with PURR, 2 R's. Jack PAAR can't PURR, so he has 2 A's instead. Maybe Henry VIII was the only one who distinguished between Catherine and Katherine, as he had 3 wives all with the name Catherine.

Geri,Interesting take on Hawaii language and music. Simple can be beautiful. Enjoy your time in FL. We will still be hearing from you, right?

There's no way that "Fills completely" isn't a double entendre. SATES indeed! And then having DEEPNESS as a fill completed the picture for me.

Over 50% of the students at the school where I teach are nursing students, mostly female, aged 16 to 21. I suspect I am being exposed to several million millihelens on a daily basis. That sounds dangerous.

Good evening from India,Got through the CW quite easily with a few lucky guesses on my difficult areas namely names, guessed ELLA & PIKE, got MARSALIS, NIUE and LOEB from the intersections. Never even thought FLUKY could be a word, must remember it for my next game of scrabble. Ringlet of hair would more appropriately be CURLS rather than TRESS. never heard of Glyptic and obviously the answer INTAGLIO. Heavy seems out of place for ONUS, load is okay but why heavy

Good morning CC et al., Easy puzzle but I got hung up on 6D - intaglio and didn't like 70A fluky nor 23A-fig (which is about as much as I care about this puzzle).

Random Acts of Kindness Day? Not as easy as it seems.. for me anyway. I chase 'em down to be kind to 'em but they keep running away even faster. Maybe I should upgrade from a broom to vacuum cleaner. I bet I'd catch some then, by golly!

Good morning. It has been many years since we have had any boxing scandals in the US, so your opportunity to be exposed to TANKING was limited.

I did collect baseball cards when I was very young, particularly fascinated by the infinite statistics of baseball. There were numbers of everything. I went away to private school for high school, and my mother put my cards in a "safe place" from which they never emerged. I then switched to collecting comic books in law school, and actually had a business for a while.

As far as the law, these days I like drafting briefs for appeals, and other writing exercises. I have taught legal writing and research; it is similar to crossword puzzle solving in that you have to use your imagination, and the thrill when you come up with something to fill in the blank is nice. It also suits my interest in mysteries; when I find a case that says what I want, it is still pretty exciting. I have worked in criminal law, and entertainment law over the years, and still do a little of each. I was never very good at collecting from my clients, so now I just charge other lawyers. It is an odd profession; everyone hates the lawyers, and when we win, it seldom is credited to our effort, and when we lose, it is never because the client did something really stupid, that could not be fixed. We all need a sense of humor in life.

No major hangups for me today. I vaguely remembered the name Lisa LOEB, which is a good thing since I was completely and utterly unaware of NIUE. I wonder how that's even pronounced?

Other vaguely knowns were ELLA (I've heard of her but really wanted CLAUDE) and NOL (which I've seen enough to recognize, but can never remember without help from the perps). 66A messed with my brain a bit, since I knew Ian Fleming and ART Garfunkle, but I've never heard of ART Fleming (or Ian Garfunkle, for that matter). Oh -- and I know what an ITAGLIO is, but it took most of the perps to get it from the clue "Glyptic art."

A couple of minor quibbles:

1. AREA shouldn't really be clued as "length times width" without some additional information, like "for a square" or "at times."

2. I guess the appropriateness of "diminutive being" for ELF really depends on whether you're thinking Keebler or Tolkien. OK, so that's not really a quibble.... ^_^

Good morning all.I had a few guesses today and g'ed LOEB, since I had no idea of that or NIUE. I also screwed up INTAGLIO by having POL for NOL and ROD for TOD. I missed the catch on LIED and was wondering about how SIE meant to fade away until I got here. Oh well, you can't win them all.

c.c.,Nice interview today.

The root words for EDUCE are e(x) = from, out of, and ducere to lead. For EDIFICE it is the same prefix, plus facere = to make. So I suppose edifice is something made, constructed (rising) out of the ground.

Dennis (or anybody), did you ever make and play with a bullroarer when you were younger. It could be an optional way to clue roarer. Basicly, a roarer is a flat piece of wood on a string and when you twirl it, it makes a noise. Here is a clip.

aboriginal communicates with his mates using a bullroarer while his missus does takes a bath.

"How long did the Greek colonize Turkey?"I am not sure it is really correct to view the matter as Greece colonizing 'Turkey'. Aside from the fact that Turkey is a modern country, it may help to bear in mind that to the ancient Greeks, the island of Delos (the legendary birthplace of Apollo and his fraternal twin Artemis) was considered to be the center of the cosmos. Bearing that in mind, one can see from this map that, whereas today we think of countries as specific landmasses, for the ancient Greeks, their homeland was all the land surrounding the Aegean Sea.

I meant to add that the most impressive ancient Greek ruins that I have seen actually lie in modern Turkey. Not far from the coastal resort city of Kuşadası, are the ruins of Ephesus in the region of IONIA.

Good Morning All, It is difficult to comment on our recent puzzles. There are always words that are either new, or clued differently, but I just haven't been getting many "Aha" moments. Sometimes I enjoy agonizing a little over a fill that won't come easily with the help of perps.

After SNOWFLAKE, the other theme answers filled in quickly. Like Barry G., I knew INTAGLIO, but the "Glyptic art" clue was an unknown.

I have a problem with degrees of true. I don't believe something can be (12D) TRUER or truest. Either it is true or it isn't. An exaggeration or fib might not be harmful, but it is still untrue.

California has been getting its share of the theme's Weather Units for the past couple of days. There has been lots of snow falling in the mountains, which is great for skiers and great for our summer water supply. No snow here, but a lot of rain and wind has made it a good time to catch up on some indoor chores.

Hi all, not very exciting puzzle today, but it did hang me up in a few places. Like others, 'intaglio' was an unknown. Somehow I read the clue for 59A wrong and wrote RAINCLOUD (did not notice it was supposed to be a plural until later)after changing that goof up, it wasn't so bad. I also thought 21D was a plural when it wasn't so I guess 'plurals' are not my thing today!

I like the thought of Random Acts of Kindness Day....and I'll bet Lois will really take advantage of it ;0 !! I'm sure she can find someone to "hop on" and have a 'field event' with 'profundity'.

I have a problem with degrees of true. I don't believe something can be (12D) TRUER or truest. Either it is true or it isn't.

Actually, most things in life are subjective.

"He has a lot of money."(Is $100 a lot of money?)

"She is tall."(Is five foot eight tall?)

"He is a good student."(He gets mostly Bs and some As and Cs.)

"It's hot today."(Is thirty degrees hot?)

"Only a few people went to the concert."(It really depends on the size of the venue: thirty people in a bar is a lot of people but thirty people at Wembly stadium is a disaster.)

So all these statements can be labelled "somewhat true". Very few statements in our daily lives can be considered objectively true: objective truth basically belongs to the realms of mathematics and logic.

But does having $1000 make the statement "He has a lot of money." TRUER than if he has $100? Or is having $10,000 the truest statement of having a lot of money? If "She is tall." at 5'8", is being 5'10" any TRUER? Standards may vary, but it seems to me that all are true depending on the standard being used.

If we said "5'8" is taller than 5'10" that wouldn't be less true, it would be false, a lie.

Interestingly, there have been several studies about how often people tell lies. "Most people lie to others several times a day and deceive about 30 people per week."

Personally I think that is a little low.....Phone rings while you are preparing dinner. You answer it. It is your son, who doesn't call very often. "Were you busy?" "No, not at all (as you turn the stove burner down to simmer)." Lie! Or, in order to get rid of the caller, "I'm right in the middle of reupholstering the sofa". Lie!

It was also noted that socially skilled people lie more often than those who are not socially skilled.

G.A.H. often exaggerates stories about his youth and easily adds details that might make the story more interesting, but that I know are not what really happened.

I tell him that I was paying attention to his latest golf story, but since I sometimes (oops, that's a lie...I do it a lot!) tune out, that might be a lie too.

We all lie everyday, and pretty frequently I think. Usually it is harmless and meant to ease our way in the world.

This was an easy puzzle for which I had only one error: I wrote in “lies” instead of LIED, giving me “sie” for 34A. And though “sie” is a word, it means gender-neutral as in pronouns that neither reveal nor imply the gender of a person. Or a hermaphrodite person. The only unknown then was INTAGLIO which I obtained from the crosses.

The “Raines of old films” with whom I am most familiar is “Claude” who played the French policeman in Casablanca (I always cry through this scene). And though I am very familiar with Wynton Marsalis, I have never heard of his brother Branford.

@Clear Ayes…what fado singer did you see Friday night? And

@Clear Ayes and Martin. Clear Ayes, I agree that something cannot be “truer” or “rounder” or “more perfect”, rather “true”, “round” or “perfect”. Or not. And Martin, though most things in life are subjective, all that means is that they may be true to the person speaking but not true to others. To me at 5’2” it would be true (to me) if I were to describe a 5’8” person as tall. But if you are 6’7” that might be a misleading or untrue statement (to you). And while it may be more accurate to say that the 5’8” person is “tall to me”, the original statement is neither more or less true TO ME.

Hmm, sounds like we may have an interesting discussion on "truthiness" (Yes, I watch The Colbert Report.)and degrees thereof. Anybody else have a comment???

A poem in tribute to the much needed California rain....Are you nice and dry JD, Wolfmom, Melissa bee?

Secondary Rain

Huge droplets explode in the puddlessmall lakes in the uneven surfacecraters in the alley, rivulets connecting themgiant bubbles bursting in great popsRain falling from above, not reaching the groundsecondary rain drops swell,coalesce on the oak branches, the broad leaveson acorns and wiresturgid droplets, bombshurl themselves to eartherupt in final glory

"There's no way that "Fills completely" isn't a double entendre."Martin, unless you are going all DF, I don't see the double-entendre. 'Fills completely' is clearly redundant, but does not have the double meaning required of a double-entendre. The term is merely redundant, which in French is 'faire double emploi'.

DoesItinInk pointed out that something cannot be 'rounder',(it is either round or it is not), likewise something is either full or it is not. Something that is full is complete. It cannot be less than complete and yet be full. I agree with ClearEyes that true falls into this same category. Something is true or it is not. However, I am not sure we human being are truly capable of seeing the truth.That being said, ClearEyes, I agree with Martin. Absolute truth lies within the realm of mathematics and logic.Psychologists would say that little white lies are the result of 'forced compliance' when faced with 'cognitive dissonance'. As you said, we lie just to make life easier.BTW, that's some euphemism: 'Socially skilled people' for 'more skillful liars'. It strikes me that it might just be that this is the true source of everything that is wrong with this world!

Clear ayes at 11:54...loved your comments about the little lies, fibs,exaggerations whatever that we all do each day. It is also true we "twist" things to avoid hurting someone's feelings. "Oh your new couch is lovely!" when we actually think she could have done better at a garage sale. "Thank you for having us to dinner, it was delicious". You really can't wait to get home and take an anti-acid.

A common question is why Mount Waiʻaleʻale is the wettest spot on earth averaging more than 460 inches of rain each year at the summit. The answer is three-fold. Its northern position relative to the main Hawaiian Islands provides more exposure to frontal systems that bring rain during the winter. It has a relatively round and regular conical shape, exposing all sides of its peak to winds and the moisture that they carry. Finally, its peak lies just below the so-called trade wind inversion layer of 6,000 feet ,above which trade-wide-produced clouds cannot rise.

This refers to the center of the island . Like all of the other islands, it has wet and dry sides. There is even an amazing mini version of the Grand Canyon.

There is evidence of Greek-speaking peoples populating the islands and coasts of the Aegean Sea as far back as the second millennium BC. Those peoples who migrated eastward and either settled in Attica, or sailed across to the coasts of Asia Minor to found new colonies, became known as the Ionian Greeks.

Although the Ionians maintained close relationships with the inhabitants of Attica, by about 500 BC, all of the colonies in Asia Minor recognized the supremacy of the Persian king's representative, the satrap, based in his city of Sardis. In return for tribute payments these cities were generally left alone to manage their own affairs. However, in the aftermath of the Athenian revolution, several of these cities became involved in a rebellion against Persian rule.

Their revolt lasted for six years before it was finally defeated in 494 BC. The Persians then made an example of several of the Ionian cities by carrying off their inhabitants to Persia to be resettled, sold as slaves, or in the case of many young men, made into eunuchs. Because of the help Athens and other cities had given the Ionians, the revolt provided the Persians with a perfect pretext to invade Greece itself.

Clear ayes, I am loving every minute of this rain. Truman and I took a short walk between showers an hour ago. He is still asleep.:)

I had to reacquaint myself with many clues before I could begin to fill them: glyptic art, educed,profundity, rend, pile of rocks :), castling piece, and Bob gave me more than enough info on pushrod pushers! Easy theme, and if I keep writing, I may catch myself in a lie.

Promiseme, YES!! We are lucky to have such a great hockey team here in San Jose. They are going thru a slump at the moment; hope it is short lived. We have shared season tickets with friends for years. Kathleen is right. In the early years, they were hard to watch, but the crowd is ALWAYS with them.. great fans.

Plea: If anyone knows where I can see or buy episodes 7 and 8 of #1 Single please contact me (email address is in my blogger profile).

@Dennis:Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

My wife and I are volunteers for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. We look up obituaries in the local papers, go out to cemeteries to take photos of tombstone markers, etc. for people in other parts of the country doing genealogical research. (Lots of genealogy information in obits and tombstones.) So we do "Random Acts of Kindness" all the time.

Watch out!! Here comes philosophy. Wikipedia has a several interesting articles about what is truth. Among them are Vagueness and Paradox of the Heap. They won't necessarily change your mind about what constitutes the truth. Philosophers have been arguing that topic for a few thousand years.

Ah ...Although I saw (and appreciated) the satire in Dennis' post to Mr. Williams, I failed to note its significance with respect to 'little white lies'. I concur with ClearEyes, you are certainly a socially-skilled person, Dennis ;)

Yeah, Promise beat me to it, but I was going to mention how one definition of "true" is "faithful" and it's certainly possible to be more or less faithful than another person. So, in that limited sense, I'd say it's possible to be TRUER.

Having just admired the amazing way in which the shades of grey, orange, blue and black of the dusk sky reflect upon the river out back, I could not help but recall ClearEyes' link regarding "vagueness". The fascinating and beautiful interplay of the various qualities of light upon the water gave me pause. The question of truth came to mind once more and whether we can even trust our own eyes. I suspect this is what the Impressionists were alluding to in such paintings as Alfred Sisley's View of the Saint-Martin Canal. A cursory look reveals that the painting does not depict the actual image that our eye perceives of the Parisian canal. Yet, it bespeaks of a purer perception that our mind's eye captures. A 'greater' truth .. if you will.

Had a couple of problems as did some of the others. Did not know intaglio, nor did I know that fig was trifling amount. Did not care for the clues "weather units"...I was thinking of isobars and cold fronts etc. These answers are forms of precipitation.

Hiddy. Haven't gotten to the puzzle, yet. Too busy today. Branford Marsalis was Jay Leno's first musical director. Wynton is more famouser and their daddy, Elis, a fine jazz piano player, is probably the least famousist. They are all very musically declined.

All truth is a matter of perception and relation. That's why you are sworn to tell the "Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...." instead of swearing to tell the facts. Your perception bends the truth which can totally distort the facts.

A man witnessed a crime at a convenience store while sitting in his car. He told the police he saw the robber escape and described him as 5'10" tall, wearing a green baseball hat, green shirt and green tennis shoes and black pants. When the robber was soon caught the arresting officer told the witness NOT to show up in court. The bad guy was 6'2" tall with white hat, shirt and shoes, and blue jeans. And yet, the witness had told the TRUTH as he saw it. He just didn't take into consideration the green lights from the 7-11 sign and the robber leaning in a forward position as he RAN from the scene. That position made him seem shorter. Truth-YES. Fact-No. Does God exist? Yes, in TRUTH, to some. No way of knowing-in FACT.

Clearayes. Correction. The course in Birmingham is ROSS BRIDGE not ROCK BRIDGE. Sorry to you and G.A.H.

C.C.Thanks for thr link, but I literally cannot write that quickly. Even when I know the answers, I take at least 5 minutes to write the 200 or so letters. Oh, it may be that it is a product of my both not seeing well (I often get bogged down because I put answer for 36 down in 38 down, etc.) and having very inconsistent handwriting. It might work online.

I liked the use of Art Fleming to confuse the issue, since we all think of IAN first.

I also appreciate the education about millihelens, now to teach my sons....

I think double entendres are in the ear of the beholder; the more salacious the mind, the more you hear.

INTAGLIO apparently left many of us feeling we were in an IMBROGLIO. Which means i tis time for me to go.-

PromiseMeThis, Interesting comments about the truth of what we see. A painting may impart the essence (def: the individual, real, or ultimate nature of a thing especially as opposed to its existence) of a canal or sunset. Yet each person will see the painting, as well as the actual landscape, differently.

Barry G. I'm not convinced that one person can be more faithful (faithfuler? ;o) than another. A person may have lapses in their faithfulness, at which time they are no longer faithful, not less faithful. But when they are in a state of being faithful, they are equally as faithful as anyone else. As far as marital fidelity goes, either a person is faithful, or they are not. A lapse in fidelity can be forgiven, but after several lapses, I think that person can be termed serially (and probably permanently) unfaithful.

Glad to see philosopher Buckeye stop by with a comment on truth and perception.

Yeah, Promise beat me to it, but I was going to mention how one definition of "true" is "faithful" and it's certainly possible to be more or less faithful than another person. So, in that limited sense, I'd say it's possible to be TRUER.

"True" can also mean "accurate" or "precise". To say that everything in life is either true or false is not a particularly true statement. :)

Martin, though most things in life are subjective, all that means is that they may be true to the person speaking but not true to others. To me at 5’2” it would be true (to me) if I were to describe a 5’8” person as tall. But if you are 6’7” that might be a misleading or untrue statement (to you). And while it may be more accurate to say that the 5’8” person is “tall to me”, the original statement is neither more or less true TO ME.

I understand that but if you tell a friend that you know somebody who is "tall and handsome" and she goes and sees him and he's five foot eight and balding but still okay to look at would she accuse you of lying, stretching the truth or just being subjective?

@anonymous @8:09 There is a link at the top of each daily blog to go to the Chicago Tribune's online puzzle site. Once you get there, select the featured puzzle, then the regular skill level, then solve, solve puzzle, and look over this puzzle. All of the answers are there before you! Have a great evening!

"True" can also mean "accurate" or "precise". To say that everything in life is either true or false is not a particularly true statement. :)

Exactamunde. When I said "faithful" I wasn't just referring to marital fidelity. A recording can be more (or less) faithful to the original source, as can a painting. A movie can be "true to life" even if some of the details have been exaggerated a bit, and some movies are truer to life than others.

My current blog avatar, for example, is certainly a true likeness of me. But, since it's now about 5 or 6 years old, a more recent picture would certainly be a truer likeness.

Barry G. This will be posted too late for many to read so I may re-post it tomorrow.

Your comment of 9:05PM really proves my point about Truth being perception and relation.

You said "My current blog avatar, for example, is certainly a true likeness of me. But, since it's now about 5 or 6 years old, a more recent picture would certainly be a truer likeness."

This use of the word true to equate to Truth is a stretch but will work for my purposes. Both the 5 or 6 year old picture, and the recent photo are BOTH true likenesses. One is not truer than the other, because the picture cannot lie. (Just as the photos we all posted on those ponies were true likenesses of ourselves.) And this is where "relation" of truth comes in. The "relation" here is time. The recent photo would not be TRUER, but rather NEWER. Both would be likenesses, but in different time. Both are TRUE.

If a nubile young lady would ask you if your avatar is true, you could honestly, truthfully and factually say "Yes". Because she didn't ask the question properly, she will assume that's how you look today. She should have asked if the picture is representative of how you look TODAY. Then the honest,truthful and factual answer would be "No".

Misguidance of perception is a ploy often used by lawyers. They phrase a question so that a truthful answer from you is misleading of the facts in a case."Yes or no, Barry. Have you stopped beating you wife?" Either answer and you're dead meat on a stick.

One other thing, fellow x/wers. (I'll post this on Wed., also). This is something that irritates me to death and c.c. has mentioned a few times. Please read ALL of the postings before you jump in to correct someone's error.

On Presidents Day I did a little skit about presidential trivia, and said that George Washington Carver was the great grandfather of our 38th President Jimmy "Carver". I got to thinking about that, and rechecked my facts. About an hour later, I posted a correction stating Jimmy was our 39th President.

Buckeye,I fear I must come to the defense of one of the dreaded 'anon'.That particular one (whoever it may have been) was pointing out that, in your 'correction', you stated that Jimmy Carver was our 39th president.I, myself, did not wish to point that out due to the fact that you had previously mentioned George Washington Carver. Given your wonderfully zany wit, I was unsure of your intention.